The word Kenpo is used for Chinese influenced systems in Japan and Okinawa. In Hawaii the Kenpo family of systems such as Kajukenbo and Kenpo Karate carried on a system of rapid fire hand strikes mixed with aggressive grappling technique. These systems influenced military combatives, Full Contact Karate, Western Kickboxing and Mixed Martial Arts. Hawaii is also one of the first places Jujutsu became taught in the West. In the quest to learn to apply traditional techniques to reality based self defense, a basis of Hawaiian Kenpo was said to be Japanese Kenpo Jujutsu. Searching for Kenpo in Japan often leads to nowhere. Does Kenpo Jujutsu exist, and if so does it bear its resemblance to its Hawaiian counterpart?
Kenpo Jujutsu is one of the aggressive and nuanced forms of Japanese martial arts created, its techniques surviving in Hawaii is because it was banned for civilian use in Meiji Era Japan. Its techniques and system exist in multiple schools as category of technique or self defense systems fading into obscurity. Japanese Kenpo developed primarily in Edo period, combining speed striking to vital targets with grappling with the goal of fighting multiple opponents with the assumption that attempts would be made to go to the ground.
Answering "What is Kenpo Jujutsu?" requires looking at the history of Jujutsu itself, its various forms and schools which used a particular strike method which correlates to what is practiced today in Hawaiian systems. Along the way, we find additional questions such as life and career of Henry Okazaki, the reality of Kosho Shorei Ryu Kenpo Jujutsu and the life and teachings of James Mitose. Kenpo in Japan answers questions related to systems of swordsmanship outside of the Katana, the arts of the Sohei monks influenced by Shaolin systems, the secret aspects of Kano's Judo, the origin and techniques of Aikido, and the creation of Japanese Budo. This forms of the basis of Kenpo as part of unarmored Japanese grappling systems, and also the most likely art used by those who identified as Ninja including both the Iga and Koga systems.
Kenpo in Japan and its development also gives insight into those schools which practiced ground grappling, before the skill became a new specialization in the systems of Brazil.Hawaii was one of the first places to actively adopt Brazilian Jujutsu. It is a continued focus in many Hawaiian systems today, studied alongside methods meant to use takedowns as submissions. This gives further context to takedown and submission technique in classical Jujutsu systems, and illustrates that roots of Japanese Kenpo that exist today, were part of systems that go back to the times of Musashi. The reader will gain new insights and questions for their own study and research, into the nature of the complete and total skills that make up the art of Jujutsu, and the history of Japanese martial arts and their survival in Hawaii.
